Students at St Andrews University take their weekly Pier Walk. Photograph: public domainMore than 100,000 students will face a double disappointment when they fail to find a place at university this summer and are hit with the prospect of trebled tuition fees when they try again in 12 months' time.
Official figures reveal the size of the group who will fail to attain a university place in the last year before fees shoot up. It is made up of 75,000-85,000 who would have gone on to standard university courses and a further 10,000 to 20,000 nursing, midwifery and teacher training applicants.
It is about 10,000 people larger than it would have been because of the coalition's decision to renege on the Labour government's pledge to increase the total intake in 2011 as they did in 2010.
Usman Ali, the National Union of Students' vice-president for higher education, said the stakes were high for students. "For several years now we have seen the numbers of qualified and ambitious students applying to university outstripping the number of places available, forcing those young people to fight for jobs in an ever-shrinking youth job market," said Ali.
"The most determined choose to reapply the following year, but those who miss out this year will find themselves with fees trebled and government funding slashed simply because the government is not willing to expand investment in skills and education for young people when it is most needed.
"Those students will find themselves stuck between the rock of high youth unemployment, and the hard place of spiralling debt.
"Those who do enter university in 2012 will accrue more debt at university than any generation before, and once the implications of the white paper become clear, they could even find that their fees are higher than those who follow them."
According to the research from the House of Commons library, those most likely to miss out are mature, disabled or black students, or those with lower educational attainment.
Meanwhile, the Royal Society of Chemistry has raised concerns over the debts prospective scientists face. Using the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills' own figures, it claims a senior academic on a salary of ?75,000 would pay back three times the ?45,000 loan they would be expected to take in order to complete their studies.
However, Professor David Phillips, president of the society, said that the publishing by universities of employment prospects by degree would highlight how well the sciences fare against other subjects.
He said: "These consequences affect all students, whatever subject they study. However, students would do well to consider what the employment prospects are for any course they undertake.
"For some subjects these are bleak, but for the 'hard' sciences, and particularly chemistry, employment prospects are very good, so we urge schools to encourage science students into subjects like chemistry [and engineering and physics] where employment is not only highly likely, but fills a national need also."
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "Going to university has always been a competitive process and not all who apply are accepted. Despite this, we do understand how frustrating it is for young people who wish to go to university and are unable to find a place.
"We are opening up other routes into a successful career. Our reforms will make part-time university study more accessible."
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